![]() After mistakenly trying to order beers at the small bar (which had five handles all dispensing Pilsner Urquell), the non-English-speaking waiter ushered us to two empty seats at a communal table. Upon closer inspection, it was a hidden away beer hall filled to the brim with patrons. Trust me, this doesn’t look like the rest of the bars in Prague’s old town What’s behind door number one? Overcome with curiosity, I poked my head into the poorly-marked entrance door and first thought I had mistakenly wandered into a private club (Knights of Columbus or VFW-style). ![]() The merriment was coming from a non-descript building with graffiti scrawled the front, at complete odds to the rest of the touristy places around it. All of a sudden along our walk, I heard the muffled sounds of a rowdy party. As walked along the one of the narrow cobblestone arteries that all lead to the main square, the crush of people around us thickened, and the restaurants and shops shifted to those that only catered to visiting tourists. Bars usually only vend one type of beer (there is a Czech motto that, in one night, you must stay loyal to one woman and one beer), so your choices upon arrival at a bar are usually light or dark, big (0.5 liter) or small (0.33 liter).Īfter one light, one dark (both big) beer at U Medvidku, Chris and I continued on our journey towards Prague’s old town square. But rather than the alcohol-heavy microbrews that are all the rage in the States, light, foamy lagers are the name of the game here. What Budweiser means on the other side of the Atlantic Light or dark? Decisions, decisions Pilsner Urquell, the world’s first brand of pilsner beerĪs you can probably already tell, beer is a big deal in Czech Republic. After decades of (still ongoing) litigation, the current state is that Czech Budweiser is sold under its own name in European markets, while in North America its sold as Czechvar. To make a long story (and about 100 court cases) short, both Anheuser-Busch InBev and Budweiser Budvar brewing companies claim rights to using the name associated with this type of beer, Budweiser. Similarly, by the way, the nearby city of Pilsen also gave rise to the style of beer nowadays called pilsner. The Budweiser name actually comes from a city in modern day Czech Republic (Budweis, in German, which was one of the official languages at the time) that has been brewing beer since the 13th century. It was Saturday around happy hour time, so our first agenda item was to visit U Medvidku, a 550-year old brewery that is also a flagship beer hall for Czech Budweiser. Our hotel was in Prague’s new town, a neighborhood that circles its old town area and, despite its name, is still hundreds of years old. I’ll do my best to give you the firsthand view of our amazing night in Prague. And ended up with one of the coolest nights of our travel experience yet. Thankfully, an awesome friend in Chicago sent us must dos (thanks, Dan!), so, shortly after checking in early Saturday evening, we set off to fulfill some of his recommendations. Luckily, so far, they have all worked out great, and so we found ourselves arriving at the Prague train station with two nights and not much of a plan. Petersburg? Sounds good!) and were prepared to cancel them if the travel plans didn’t work out later. So we proactively threw a couple nights here and there on the calendar at properties that offered good value (two nights in Helsinki? Why not! How about Warsaw, Prague, and Bratislava while we’re at it? Add a free night on to St. Back in May we were frantically trying to book two-night stays with our Club Carlson points to maximize its buy one, get one benefit before the hotel program did away with it for new bookings starting in June. We had scheduled two nights in Prague completely by chance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |